In the Old Tongue, "True blood of."

Abilities in the use if the One Power in specific areas. Aptitude in various Talents varies widely from individual to individual and is seldom related to the strength of the individual's ability to channel. There are major Talents, the best known and most widespread is Healing. Other examples are Cloud Dancing, the control of weather, and Earth Singing, which involves controlling movements of the earth; for example, preventing, or causing, earthquakes or avalanches. There are also minor Talents, seldom given name, such as the ability to see ta'veren or to duplicate the chance-twisting effect of ta'veren, though in a very small and localized area rarely covering more than a few square feet. Many Talents are now known only by their names and sometimes vague descriptions. Some, such as Traveling (the ability to shift oneself from one place to another without crossing the intervening space) which had been lost (B6) are now being rediscovered. Others such as Foretelling (the ability to foretell future events, but in a general way) and Delving (the location of ores and possibly their removal from the ground),are now found only rarely if at all. Another Talent long thought lost is Dreaming, which involves, among other things, interpreting the Dreamer's dreams to foretell future events in more specific fashion than Foretelling does. Some Dreamers had the ability to enter Tel'aran'hiod, the World of Dreams, and (it is said) even other people's dreams. The last acknowledged Dreamer was Corianin Nedeal, who died in 526 NE, but there is now another. See also Tel'aran'rhiod.

Guardsman-Lieutenant of the Queen's Guards who loves his queen more than life or honor. (B7) Former Gurdsman-Lieutenant, loves Morgase.

A farmer and shepherd in the Two Rivers. As a young man, he left to become a soldier, returning with a wife (Kari, now deceased ) and a child (Rand).

In the Old Tongue, "Web of Destiny." A great change in the Pattern of an Age, centered around one or more people who are ta'veren. See also Pattern of an Age; ta'veren.

Capital city of Tarabon. See Tarabon.

See Hawkwing, Artur.

Nation on the Aryth Ocean. Capital city: Tanchinco (tan-CHEE-coh). Once a great trading nation, a source of rugs, dyes and fireworks produced by the Guild of Illuminators, among other things. Now wracked by civil war, as well as by simultaneous wars against Arad Doman and people sworn to the Dragon Reborn.

The Last Battle. See also Dragon, Prophecies of the; Horn of Valere.

A city on an island in the River Erinin. The center of Aes Sedai power, and location of the White Tower.

A person around whom the Wheel of Time weaves all surrounding life-threads, perhaps ALL life-threads, to form a Web of Destiny. This waving is little understood except that it seems in many ways an alternation of chance; what might happen, but only rarely, does. The effect can at times be quite localized. Someone influenced by a ta'veren may say or do what they would only have said or done one time in a million under those circumstances. Events occur of seeming impossibility, such as a child falling a hundred feet from a tower unharmed. At other times the effect seems to extend to influencing history itself, though often by means of the localized effects. This, it is believed, is the real reason that ta'veren are born, in order to shift history and restore a balance to the turning of the Wheel. See also Pattern of an Age; ta'maral'ailen.

A nation on the Sea of Storms. Also the capital city of that nation, a great seaport. The banner of Tear is three white crescent moons slanting across a field half red, half gold. See also Stone of Tear.

See Dragon, the.

In the Old Tongue, "the Unseen World," or "the World of Dreams." A world glimpsed in dreams which was believed by the ancients to permeate and surround all other possible worlds. Unlike other dreams, what happens to living things in the World of Dreams it real; a wound taken there will still be there on awakening, and one who dies there does not wake at all. See also ter'angreal.

Any one of a number of remnants of the Age of Legends that use the One Power. Unlike angreal and san'angreal, each ter'angreal was made to do a particular thing. For example, one makes oaths taken within it binding. Some are used by Aes Sedai, but their original purposes are largely unknown. Some will kill or destroy the ability to channel of any woman who uses them. See also angreal; sa'angreal.

A not-so-simple gleeman and traveler. See also Game of Houses; gleeman.

In the Old Tongue, "Brother to the Trees."

In the Old Tongue, "The grave is no bar to my call." Inscription on the Horn of Valere. See also Horn if Valere.

As Daughter-Heir of Andor, she married Taringail Damodred and bore his son Galadedrid. Her disappearance in 972 NE, shortly after he brother Luc vanished in the Blight, led to the struggle in Andor called the Succession, and caused the events in Cairhien that eventually brought on the Aiel War. Her sign was a woman's hand gripping a thorny rose stem with a white blossom.

The years after the Dark One's counterstroke tainted the male half of the True Source, when male Aes Sedai went mad and Broke the World. The exact duration of this period is unknown, but it is believed to have lasted nearly one hundred years. It ended completely only with the death of the last male Aes Sedai. See also Hundred Companions; True Source; One Power; Breaking of the World.

See Tuatha'an.

A High Lord of Tear. A man who desires what neither his vast fortune nor his face will gain him.

See Tuatha'an.

A very well-known book of travel stories and observations by a noted Malkieri writer and traveler. The book was first printed in 968 NE and has been reprinted continuously ever since. Jaim Farstrider disappeared shortly after the Aiel War and is generally believed to be dead.

See Avendesora.

Disparaging term used by the Aiel for Cairhienin, along with "oathbreakers." Both refer to King Laman's cutting down of Avendoraldera, a gift from the Aiel, and act which violated the oaths given at the time the gift was given. To the Aiel, both terms rank with the worst that anyone can be called. See also Aiel War.

An Ogier who has the ability to sing to trees (called "treesinging"), either healing them, or helping them to grow and flower, or making things from the wood without damaging the tree. Objects made in this manner are called "sung wood" and are highly prized. Few Ogier remain who are Treesingers; the Talent seems to be dying out.

See Treesinger.

Creatures of the Dark One, created during the War of the Shadow. Huge in stature, they are a twisted blend of animal and human stock. Vicious by nature, they kill for the pure pleasure of killing. Deceitful in the extreme, they cannot be trusted unless coerced by fear. They are divided into tribe-like bands, among then the Dha'vol, the Ko'bal, and the Dhai'mon.

A series of wars, beginning about 100 AB and lasting more than three hundred years, furing which Trolloc armies ravaged the world. Eventually the Trollocs were slain or driven back into the Great Blight, but some nations ceased to exist, while others were almost depopulated. All records of the time are fragmentary. See also Covenant of the Ten Nations.

The driving force of the universe, which turns the Wheel of Time. It is divided in to a male half (saidin) and a female half (saidar), which work at the same time with and against eachother. Only a man can draw on saidin, only a woman on saidar. Since the beginning of the Time of Madness, saidin has been tainted by the Dark One's touch. See also One Power.

A wandering folk, also known as the Tinkers and as the Traveling People, who live in brightly painted wagons and follow a totally pacifist philosophy called the Way of the Leaf. Things mended by Tinkers are often better than new. They are among the few who can cross the Aiel Waste unmolested, for the Aiel strictly avoid all contact with them.

A Seanchan of high degree, commander of the Hailene. See also Seanchan; Hailene.